Dear friends,
To all of you who marched Saturday, January 21, 2017 let me just say how incredibly proud I am of you coming together in the wake of what could be a darker future than we have faced. Let me also say that I really hope you continue to march in your homes today, and every day from now on. Here is the truth: one day does not make a difference. Your life must be dedicated to making a difference. For some of you, yesterday was a first step. For others of you, yesterday was a natural progression on what you have already shown you believe.
“…People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” -Maya Angelou
Yesterday, when I was absolutely anywhere on the internet I felt great. I felt great because I saw my nation coming together. I saw happy faces and truly amazing signs. But I also saw a lot more people in one place than I have ever seen before. I have never seen that many people at a Black Lives Matter protest, for example. You may counter that this is about feminism and not about racism, but we cannot preach coming together without including every alienated group.
Here’s the thing, has moved as I am, I know that not everybody will show up every single day until they have no more days to show up for. Here in America, we need to come together as a nation (which honestly, is just such a cliche saying at this point), for at least the next four years. Beyond that, we need to stay together. I feel like we have gone backwards in so many regards, and we cannot let that happen anymore. We need to work on moving forward.
“While we breathe, we hope.” -Barack Obama
I would like to take that one step further and say that while we hope, we work for a better future. We work for our friends, our children, our parents, and ourselves.
Peace, love and happiness.
**Photos were used with permission (Featured photo from St. Louis; embedded photo from Washington)
**In the interest of full disclosure, both quotes were read in Michael Strahan’s Wake Up Happy this morning and set a great tone for the day.
She’s Got a Whole PhD 